Abstract

Using immunostaining with antibodies against cohesin subunits, we show here that cohesin-enriched structures analogous to the so-called centromere protein bodies (PB) are the characteristic of galliform lampbrush chromosomes. Their centromeric location was verified by FISH with certain DNA probes. PB-like structures were used as markers for centromere localization in chicken lampbrush chromosomes. The gap predicted to be centromeric in current chicken chromosome 3 sequence assembly was found to correspond to the non-centromeric cluster of CNM repeat on the q-arm of chromosome 3; the centromere is proposed to be placed at another position. The majority of chicken microchromosomes were found to be acrocentric, in contrast to Japanese quail microchromosomes which are biarmed. Centromere cohesin-enriched structures on chicken and quail lampbrush microchromosomes co-localize with pericentromeric CNM and BglII− repeats respectively. FISH to the nascent transcripts on chicken lampbrush chromosomes revealed numerous non-centromeric CNM clusters in addition to pericentromeric arrays. Complementary CNM transcripts from both C- and G-rich DNA strands were revealed during the lampbrush stage.